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Monday, January 23, 2017

In the world of heritage/reproduction products with a focus on quality and sustainability, leather is right up there as one of the most commonly seen materials. Brands like Tanner Goods and CorterLeather champion hand-made goods that should last years and years. However, anyone looking to buy should be aware of what they’re paying for when it comes to leather products, and that means knowing at least a handful of the different grades of leather.We’d like to set it straight for those confused by all the options out there. Although the below list does not include every last kind of leathers, it features the different quality grades every consumer should know before making a purchase.

Full-Grain Leather

Full-Grain Leather

Starting at the top of the chain, we have full-grain leather. The term full-grain refers to leather that hasn’t been sanded or buffed out to remove marks or imperfections, so it includes the entire thickness of the skin. While sanding these out may make the leather more visually appealing to some, keeping the grain allows for additional material strength and durability.Only the highest quality furniture, luggage, and footwear often features full-grain leather, and it develops a beautiful patina over time. The popular natural leather that Tanner Goods uses is a full-grain tooling leather.

Top-Grain Leather

Top-Grain Leather Second on the list, and the second-highest quality, top-grain leather has the split layer with imperfections taken away, making it thinner and more workable for the manufacturer. This is the most common type of leather used in high-end products (think handbags), you’ve likely seen it everywhere.This leather has had its surface sanded and a finish applied, giving it a “smooth” feel. While this finish takes away most breathability, it prevents stains that would otherwise sink into full-grain leather.

Suede

Suede

Well-known to most, suede has a signature napped surface from the underside of the skin. Technically suede is formed from split leather, which has had the top-grain rawhide removed to leave behind the drop split. This can be further divided, or sanded down to reach the appropriate thickness. There are a variety of techniques to create suede (different splits, sanding, etc.), but its signature is its textured feel. Cow leather has a rougher feel, so lamb, goat, calf, and deerskin are commonly used instead.Although suede feels great, it’s less durable because its thinner and absorbs liquid easily due to its porous surface. Similar to suede but generally regarded as being more durable, nubuck is top-grain cattle hide leather that has been lightly sanded on the outside. This creates a very short nap, giving leather its signature velvety feel.

Corrected-Grain/”Genuine” Leather

Corrected-Grain/”Genuine” Leather

Simply put, corrected-grain or “genuine” leather has had an artificial grain applied to its surface. For those of you who are looking for high-quality leather goods, this would be a negative. The leather-like pattern is impressed into the surface and then sprayed with stain or dyes to give the fake grain a more natural appearance.

Bonded Leather

Bonded Leather

At the bottom of the pyramid, bonded leather uses leftover scrap pieces of leather that are shredded to a near-pulp. These shreds are then bonded together using polyurethane or latex on top of a fiber sheet. There’s no way of telling the level of organic leather material versus chemical, unless the manufacturer tells you (very unlikely). It’s obviously very cheap, so it is popular in furniture upholstery and other commercial uses. Source:www.heddels.com

By :Rob WaughIf the world ever descends into nuclear war, or indeed if this autumn’s spider plague gets REALLY out of control, the last survivors of the human race may well be on board one of BAE Systems Astute class submarines, the third of which completed an important test dive today.HMS Artful can stay underwater for up to 25 years without surfacing – its nuclear reactor only needs serviced once per quarter-century, and the submarine can produce breathable air and water from the sea around it.The crew just have to remember to pack a LOT of DVD box sets.The 320-foot, 7,400-tonne sub, made by British defence firm BAE Systems, displaces as much water as 65 blue whales, and can circumnavigate the world without surfacing.It has to surface once every three months, largely to load its hold with sausages.On average, each crew member eats three sausages a day. For 25 years. Think about that.

What would the hunter-killer submarine’s crew Do for 25 years if the worst came to the worst? The answer seems to be, ‘Eat a lot of sausages and Weetabix.’During a 10-week operation, Artful’s crew will consume 18,000 sausages and 4,200 Weetabix, provided they haven’t mutinied over their unimaginative diet.It is unclear what would happen if no more supplies of sausages were to be found on the surface.This operation, known as the ‘trim and incline test’, took place over two days, to prove the submarine’s safety and stability in the water. The maiden dive was undertaken in the dock on BAE Systems’ site in Barrow-in-Furness and involved a team of 80 highly-skilled personnel, including naval architects, engineers and Royal Navy crew members.Even if Britain has been reduced to an irradiated – or spider-infested – wasteland, Adrift will be able to ensure that the crew has the last, morbid laugh.Its Tomahawk cruise missiles can strike targets up to 700 miles away with pinpoint accuracy.Britain’s enemies won’t even be able to retaliate by smashing Arful’s periscope as it pokes above water – it doesn’t have one.Instead, electronic instruments pop up into the destroyed world to have a look around, relaying information to the crew via fibre optic cable.A sophisticated sonar system – Sonar 2076 – has the processing power of 2,000 laptops, equipping it with the ‘most powerful eyes and ears’ of any submarine in service today.Today’s test allowed the crew to test the sonar, navigation and optical systems for the first time.Artful is the third Astute class submarine to launch – with four more in the pipeline.
Source: metro.co.uk

By David GrimmIf you think of your dog as your “fur baby,” science has your back. New research shows that when our canine pals stare into our eyes, they activate the same hormonal response that bonds us to human infants. The study—the first to show this hormonal bonding effect between humans and another species—may help explain how dogs became our companions thousands of years ago.

“It’s an incredible finding that suggests that dogs have hijacked the human bonding system,” says Brian Hare, an expert on canine cognition at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, who was not involved in the work. Hare says the discovery might lead to a better understanding of why service dogs are so helpful for people with autism and post-traumatic stress disorder. “A finding of this magnitude will need to be replicated because it potentially has such far-reaching implications.”

Dogs are already renowned for their ability to interact with humans. It’s not just the walks and the Frisbee catching; canines seem to understand us in a

Thursday, January 19, 2017

By Cyber PanthersNovak Djokovic, one of the best tennis players in the world. Although he liked skiing and football, tennis was his ultimate love. Whether, it’s rain, snow or holidays– nothing was able to keep him from hitting balls with his tennis coach, Jelena. Let us find out some interesting facts about Novak Djokovic:1- He gripped a Tennis Racket for the first time when he was just four years old. The racket was brought by his father.2- In 1993, he was spotted by Yugoslav tennis player Jelena Gencic. She complimented the 6-year-old Djokovic as the greatest talent she ever saw since Monika Seles. She trained him for the next

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

By Tom Stafford Sometimes, when I look at a clock time seems to stand still. Maybe you've noticed this to your bemusement or horror as well. You'll be in the middle of something, and flick your eyes up to an analogue clock on the wall to see what the time is. The second hand of the clock seems to

1.To plan for the operation the BBC ran a competition for French beach holiday photographs. It was actually a way of gathering intelligence on suitable beaches.2.D-day is simply a standard armed forces way of emphasising a

By JOHN BROWNLEEIn February, 1982, a manic Steve Jobs bounded into the office of Andy Hertzfeld, the primary software architect of Apple's top-secret next gen computer, the Mac (which celebrates its 30th birthday today). Wild-eyed and obviously excited, the 27-year-old Jobs waved his hands around his head and shouted, "Mr. Macintosh! We've got to have Mr. Macintosh!"

Hitler's Family Tree (Click the image above to see a larger, more readable version). Photo Credit: Copyright by Jennifer Rosenberg

Adolf Hitler's family tree is complicated. You will notice that the last name "Hitler" had many variations that were often used almost interchangeably. Some of the common variances were Hitler, Hiedler, Hüttler, Hytler, and Hittler. Alois Schicklgruber did change his name on January 7, 1877 to "Hitler," which was the only form of the last name that his son, Adolf, used.

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

By: ANJALI BISARIA This is so not fair. Why couldn't India be the nation with no mosquitoes?Well, believe it or not, Iceland is the only country in the world that has zero population of these pesky insects. Imagine living in a place free of that constant buzzing sound that annoys the heck out of you. Sadly, we will never know that peace unless we move to Iceland.

On April 1, 1996 a full page ad appeared in six major American newspapers (The Philadelphia Inquirer, New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Dallas Morning News, and USA Today) announcing that the fast food chain Taco Bell had purchased the Liberty Bell. The full text of the ad read:Taco Bell Buys The Liberty Bell

In an effort to help the national debt, Taco Bell is pleased to announce that we have agreed to purchase the Liberty Bell, one of our country's most historic treasures.

Friday, January 6, 2017

The mention of God on U.S. currency is back in federal courts, this time because an atheist considers “In God We Trust” a burden. But it’s far from the only religious By Candida MossThis month a Sacramento-based emergency-room doctor filed a federal lawsuit seeking to remove all references to God from U.S. currency.In his lawsuit, Michael Newdow argues that the motto “In God We Trust”

The city of Dallas got poured out of court again yesterday in its decades long extra-legal persecution of Kennedy assassination expert Robert Groden, making the 82nd time the city has lost against Groden in its own municipal courts, not counting a major slap-down suffered by the city in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals earlier in

Thursday, January 5, 2017

The residents of Hilo learned a hard lesson about the downside of their picturesque Hilo Bay, but it took two killer tsunamis. The first, in 1946 and before any coordinated warning system, surged up the bay one morning, sending residents fleeing up Hilo's sloping downtown streets. It killed 96 people and destroyed huge swaths of neighborhoods and businesses.

YOU GO TO sleep with a cool, fresh glass of tap water by your bed and wake up to it tasting decidedly…off. Ever so slightly more dirt-like, I’d say. Musty, heavy, or oily, others have said. The taste difference is subtle and hard to describe, in a way that leads people who haven’t noticed to claim it doesn’t exist.

Flushing Toilets With Seawater Could Protect Marine LifeBy Deirdre LockwoodIn Hong Kong, about 80% of residents flush their toilets with seawater, thanks to a separate water distribution system set up in the 1950s. The approach conserves the city’s scarce freshwater resources, and has also been adopted by smaller communities like the Marshall Islands. As coastal populations and water demand rise, this idea may become more attractive elsewhere, though some researchers have worried about the release of potentially toxic by-products to coastal areas from treating seawater with

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Driving through the scenic countryside in the state of Vermont, you might see some anomalies in the architecture odd enough to make you do a double take. On the second floors of some older houses (and a few newer ones), a window appears to have been installed incorrectly -- at a 45-degree angle. What was the builder thinking? If the window didn't fit right, why not just put in a smaller one? Or why install one at all?